A
federal district court today ordered reinstatement of the Clinton era
roadless rule to protect almost 50 million acres of wild national
forests and grasslands from road building, logging, and development.
The court order is a stunning victory for all Americans who value
America's great natural areas and reverses the Bush administration's
efforts to open these last great natural areas to development
interests.

According to the Court, "Defendants are enjoined from taking any
further action contrary to the Roadless Rule without undertaking
environmental analysis consistent with this opinion." The Court noted
that in adopting the Rule which the Court reinstated today, the Forest
Service itself found that the Rule was "necessary to protect the social
and ecological values and characteristics of . . . roadless areas from
road construction . . . and timber harvesting activities. . . .
Adoption of [the Roadless Rule] ensures that inventoried roadless areas
will be managed in a manner that sustains their values now and for
future generations."

The Court found that in repealing the roadless rule, the Bush
administration failed to comply with basic legal requirements of the
National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act: "this
Court concludes that the Forest Service failed adequately to consider
the environmental and species impacts when it [repealed the Roadless
Rule] in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act and the
Endangered Species Act."

The Court continued: "to conclude that a regulation that effects a
major change in the way roadless areas in national forests are
regulated nationwide from the prior regulation that it replaces does
not constitute a repeal with potentially significant environmental
effects would ignore reality."

"Americans love the great natural areas our country has been blessed
with," said Earthjustice attorney Kristen Boyles. "From hunters,
hikers, fishermen, and bird watchers, to cities and towns that rely on
clean, mountain-fed drinking water, the last great roadless natural
areas in our national forests deserve preservation. As America grows,
so does the need to preserve these natural areas – because they're not
making these kind of natural areas anymore."

Conservation groups, represented by a team of Earthjustice
attorneys, brought the legal challenge to the Bush administration
policies, joining parallel efforts by four states which brought a
separate but similar challenge to the Bush administration plan.

"The sad fact is that the Bush administration gave a timber industry
lobbyist a high White House appointment and put him in charge of
reversing the government's policy to protect our last great roadless
natural areas," said Boyles of Earthjustice. "They made these changes
in a flatly illegal way and the Court caught them."

The 2005 Bush administration roadless repeal, adopted with no
environmental analysis and limited public input, replaced a Clinton era
rule adopted in January 2001 after a three-year process that included
600 public hearings and 1.6 million public comments. In addition to
repealing the roadless rule, the Bush rule invited governors to submit
petitions recommending management schemes for the national forests in
their states. Five states (Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina,
New Mexico, California) have lodged such petitions, and all have called
for protection for all roadless areas in their states. Other states,
including Oregon and Colorado, are facing Bush administration plans to
log or develop oil and gas in roadless areas.

Today's ruling doesn't address the roadless areas in the Tongass
National Forest in Alaska. In 2003, the Bush administration exempted
the Tongass from the roadless rule in a separate procedure. The
exemption made little sense then and even less now. About five million
acres in the Chugach National Forest in Alaska are once again protected
by today's ruling.

SAN
FRANCISCO - A federal judge has overturned the Bush administration's
attempts to allow new road construction in protected, roadless areas of
national forests.

The ruling revives a Clinton-area ban on new roads in untouched
wilderness. U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Laporte sides with states and
environmentalists who sued the U.S. Forest Service after it reversed
Clinton's so-called "Roadless Rule".

That ruling prohibited new logging, mining and other development on
nearly 60 million acres of forest land in 38 states and Puerto Rico.
Two million of those acres are in Oregon.

In May 2005, the Bush administration replaced Clinton's "Roadless
Rule" by giving states' governors the right to petition that land be
kept pristine and roadless. However, the federal government could
ignore those petitions. And some governors favored new road-building.
That's the case in Idaho, where plans for new roads and wilderness
mining and logging are now in a state of legal limbo. Lawyers for both
developers and environmentalists want to study Wednesday's ruling, and
wait for word of a possible appeal.

Many consider that appeal, by the federal government, as likely. An
appeals process through the federal court system could take years.